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Newsletter and Technical Publications
<Technical Workbook on Environmental Management Tools for
Decision Analysis>
Orientation Seminar on
Environmental Management Tools for Decision Analysis
TRAINER'S SPIEL FOR DAY ONE
(To be used with Presentation Slides for Orientation Seminar)
Slide No. 1
- The objectives of this Seminar are E(read from slide no. 1)
Slide No. 2
- This statement is a fitting expression of what this Module strives to
achieve in setting a discussion of key environmental decision-making tools
against the backdrop of world environmental trends and fundamental environmental
management and ecological realities.
- Understanding basic environmental and ecological concepts as well as
training on and eventually utilizing key environmental decision-making tools
should help shape a better future for organizations and communities _ as the
tools, properly understood and applied to future decisions about our
environment, find translation in the betterment of lives _ in a community, a
factory, an industry, a local government unit, etc.
Slide No. 3
- The 2000 Global Environment Report of the UNCSD cites significant progress
in the last decade in four areas -
- institutional development - that is, in the way local entities are better
able to address their unique situations and problems;
- international cooperation - in light of the global impact of our
environmental problems and the need for collective action;
- public participation - meaningful involvement of communities and civil
society as a whole; and
- private sector action, including the business sector.
- These are especially evident in positive developments regarding legal
frameworks, the use of economic instruments which harness market forces to
pressure the production sector to be more environmentally responsible;
environmental technologies which perform better and with lesser adverse effects
on the environment than other technologies; and environmental impact
assessments.
Slide No. 4
- If we focus, for example, on the area of Institutional Development, we will
note several advances as well as limitations this past decade. (Read from
slide).
Slide No. 5
- The expansion of agriculture and unplanned urbanization has given rise to
major health risks and environmental contamination. Disposal problems have been
due to the pervasive use of chemicals in economic ventures; energy use remains
unsustainable; complex and little understood interactions among global
biogeochemical cycles are leading to widespread acidification, climate
variability, changes in the hydrological cycles, and the loss of biodiversity,
biomass, and bioproductivity.
Therefore, much work by everyone on the
environmental front is still called for.
Slide No. 6
- On the one hand, environmental management and decision making and the tools
that go with these responsibilities have to embody as well as operate within
certain fundamental truths that govern the earth, upon whose environment, a
myriad of activities, with a host of impacts, make their mark-for better or
worse.
- On the other hand, it is also such fundamental truths that are the objects,
the raison d'etre for the development and application of the science and tools
of environmental management and decision making as the existence of life on
earth eventually hinges on the preservation and the continuity of such set of
truths.
- The next slides constitute the more important fundamental truths that govern
life and activities on earth and which bear upon the application of
environmental decision making tools. But it is necessary to mention the
existence of natural and unnatural (i.e., man-made ) ecosystems which provide
the habitat for living and non-living things that are in constant interrelation
with each other.
Slide No. 7
- Ecological phenomena and environmental changes occurring within the various
ecosystems have distinct features from each other.
- Natural states are best maintained to preserve the quality of the
environment. As a result of various human and sometimes even natural activities,
the quality of the environment (air, water, soil) undergoes changes which
disrupt the natural state and oftentimes result in degradation or disturbances,
thus not enabling them to perform their intended functions. The magnitude of
changes in environmental quality of ecosystems depends on the extent of
application of environmental decision-making and management tools which should
provide for mitigative, rehabilitative, restorative measures.
- Thus, applications of various environmental decision-making tools on
activities conducted in varying ecosystems will have to factor in inherent
distinctions and characteristics of different ecosystems as well as their
interactions. More importantly, application of environmental tools in so-called
unnatural ecosystems such as urban and agro-ecosystems should be able to support
the continuing adaptation of natural ecosystems' ecological processes to realize
sustainability.
- To illustrate: An originally agricultural ecosystem such as a farming area,
gradually turns into an urbanizing ecosystem once local communities derive other
non-farm income sources and venture into commercial rather than agricultural
activities (e.g. restaurant businesses, recreational areas, commercial
establishments. A progressive local government can set up an environmental
management system (EMS) for the locality to immediately address the
environmental quality changes by way of policies and programs. In turn, such EMS
should have been based on a systematic rapid urban environmental assessment
that, among others, identifies the quality and magnitude of environmental
changes that have occurred and the effect of these on various aspects of the
ecosystem, including its inhabitants, consequently allowing for the development
of agreed upon measures to address identified negative environmental changes as
well as enhance positive ones.
Slide No. 8
- Deriving their basic energy from the sun, transformations of one material
form into another across air, water and land, basically into new functions and
uses for already utilized material, regenerate life at various levels.
Environmental decision-making tools as promoters of sustainable environments
seek to maintain and enhance both the existence as well as purity of such
material cycles.
Slide No.9
- Plant and animal species, including human beings, have lower and upper
limits of tolerance for environmental factors such as, temperature, oxygen, food
energy and resistance to disease. Pollution from vehicular or industry sources
can only be tolerated by a community at a certain level beyond which diseases
and death can occur. Environmental assessments determine such levels of
tolerance and limits as a function of ecosystem characteristic; environmental
management systems provide mitigative and preventive measures to address them as
well as rehabilitation and restoration measures where necessary.
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